Miracles from a Magic Shop

Welcome to the Alphabet of the Heart Podcast Series. This Podcast Series features Dr James R. Doty, Neurosurgeon and Director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research Education (CCARE) at Stanford University, and Dr James Kirby, Clinical Psychologist and Visiting Scholar at CCARE. Each episode features Dr Doty and Dr Kirby discussing a mnemonic Dr Doty created called, "The Alphabet of the Heart", which he wrote about in his book, "Into the Magic Shop".

Can we rewire the brain to become more compassionate? That's one of the questions central to the work of James Doty, director of Stanford's Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education. Doty's new book, "Into the Magic Shop", chronicles his journey from a chaotic childhood in Southern California to a scientist at the cutting edge of the heart-brain connection. Host: Michael Krasny.

James Doty decided on his career path in fourth grade when a doctor came to visit his class and modeled for him the type of person he wanted to be. It was not the work of medicine that made the strongest impression on Doty, but the man’s kindness.

James Doty is not a subject under study at the altruism research center that he founded at Stanford in 2008, but he could be. In 2000, after building a fortune as a neurosurgeon and biotech entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, he lost it all in the dotcom crash: $75 million gone in six weeks. Goodbye villa in Tuscany, private island in New Zealand, penthouse in San Francisco.

James Doty emerged from a disadvantaged background in the United States to become a neurosurgeon, an entrepreneur and a philanthropist—only to let his fortune go and dedicate his professional life to the scientific study of compassion and altruism.